WMG’s Rhino moves into e-publishing

Label to publish short-form music and pop culture e-books

Warner Music Group’s Rhino Entertainment unit is moving into e-publishing with Single Notes, a new line of short-form digital books about music and pop culture.

First five titles will be released June 12 via the iBookstore and Amazon’s Kindle store, with prices starting at $1.99.

One of the first five titles, “My Life in the Ghost of Planets: The Story of a CBGB Almost-Was” by Planets front man Binky Philips, is now available for a limited time as a free download.

Other initial titles include a Beatie Boys tome by Spin editor Christopher Weingarten, a Duran Duran fan memoir by Yahoo! Music editor Lyndsey Parker, a look at Chic and the disco era by Michaelangelo Matos.

A fifth e-book, veteran scribe Gene Sculatti’s “Dark Stars and Anti-Matter: 40 Years of Loving, Leaving and Making Up with the Music of the Grateful Dead,” has a direct Rhino tie-in. The company exclusively reps the Dead’s back catalog.

Future e-books about the Ramones, David Bowie, Van Halen, Fleetwood Mac and Nirvana, among others, are promised.